chasing a wildcat 6.5 gt

R

rsmithsr

Well-known member
there is today a cartridge called 6gt. the results of tom at vapor trail bullets and george at GAprecision. they started with the 6.5 x47, shortened and necked down to 6mm. designed for prs( i think) it is a bit bigger than the dasher. dies, reamers and brass are all available commercially. i read where a guy in the east won his state 1k br championship with a 6 gt this year.
tom had a thought of opening it back up to 6,5 and see what happens. his rifle has been around for a while. he shot it in the 2021 1k ibs nationals, which is where i first heard of it. it seems to me that it might make a windy day 600 yd rifle when shooting against dashers.
being the foolish person i am, i bought 500 pcs of new brass, and started designing and buying parts and pcs.
the 6.5 gt brass is simple, neck up to 6.5 and turn to match your reamer.
powder has been a big issue for several years, and i started buying 4 or more lbs of anything
that came on the market. varget 4895 (imr h even accurate 2495) reloder 15.5.
i have primers, both 205 and 205m with cci 450's and some russian.
bought a mid weight 30" blank from lester, had jgs do the reamer, and GO precision did the chambering.
stock is a kelby 1k, with a 12-42 nf for now, jewell trigger.
 
my plan was to shoot vapor trail 139's but there has been very few 6.5 jackets on the market.
again i went on a buying spree, anything 140 and down in 6.5. my initial thinking was that even a quality production bullet might work at 600 yards.
i tried hornady 140 eldms to start and was not getting the velocity i wanted with Imr 4895. i switched to rl15.5 and things looked better but still too slow.
i changed to JLK 130 VLDS with the 15.5. i was able to exceed 2900 fps.
currently at 37.x at 2895 fps and under .1 at 100.
time for some fine tuning and then maybe a match.
 
dies are sort of an issue,,,but should not be...
it is just a necked up 6gt and there are production 6gt dies on the market.

i made my first seater by lapping a 6.5x47 that i had shortened. it works but not sure it is br quality.
i found a rcbs 6.5x47 seater and a rcbs 6gt seater. by swapping the guts i have threaded 6,5 gt seater,
bushing sizer was simple. i reamed the neck section of a rcbs bushing die to .295, dropped in a 6.5 neck bushing and all is well.
i am currently working with l.e wilson on modifying a 6gt seater to a 6.5 gt seater.
 
so a big jump forward. over 200 rounds thru the number 1 rifle(described above). dies are complete. a used early LRB stock was found and reworked. got a borden brm and a 1.25 30" bbl chambered by GO again. it is all together and i have gone from rifle 1 onto rifle number 2. i had little luck in load development so i took the best load and retested with 4 diff primers. in the end the ccibr4 did the best. with fire formed match brass i have closed in a good load. today i verified the load, i shot loads at .002 depth on either side of the prior best and shot down a tenth, so the seating depth confirmed the best. one shot 0.217 and the powder decrease shot 0.174, both appear to support the 0.099 shot with 38 gr and .015 off the lands somewhere around 2975.
i have a lighter bbl on order but may hold on to it. the current rifle is right at 20 lbs and light gun legal.
 
alot of load development in the prototype and now some proof in the almost real gun.
shot small groups today to proof the best loads..( a .306 and a .167!)
ready for a 600 yd match...lol there are none nearby till OJAI gets their roads repaired.
 
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